New controller let 2 planes get too close

FAA to investigate

An error by a new air traffic controller is being blamed for a close call between two planes on a converging course at O’Hare International Airport this week, officials said today.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Monday morning’s incident involving an ExpressJet Airlines regional airliner that was cleared for takeoff while a SkyWest Airlines flight was coming in for a landing on another runway, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

The controller error occurred shortly after Vice President Joe Biden’s plane landed at O’Hare. Biden and his wife, Jill, were in Chicago to attend the inauguration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The vice president’s plane was not involved in the incident, officials said. But investigators are looking into the possibility that several factors related to Biden’s arrival -- landings and takeoffs were temporarily stopped when his plane touched down and a helicopter was hovering overhead -- may have caused a distraction in the control tower.

It was not immediately known how close the two small commercial planes came within each other, officials said. But an automated spacing-detection monitor in the tower sounded an alert.

When the alert sounded, a controller in the tower instructed the pilots of the inbound SkyWest plane, descending toward runway 9 Right, to cut off the landing and go around the airport, officials said, adding the plane landed safely on its second attempt.

The ExpressJet plane was departing runway 32 Left, which is near 9 Right.

“The FAA will review the event to see if any additional training or procedural changes might be necessary,’’ Molinaro said.

O’Hare controllers said the controller who committed the error was just recently certified.

“There was a lot of distraction due to Air Force Two’s arrival and helicopters flying around,’’ said an aviation source who was at the airport.

“The controller’s mistake was that he rolled (the ExpressJet plane on) 32 Left and didn’t see the arrival out there’’ on 9 Right.

“It was ugly,’’ he added. “But corrective action was taken and it was caught before it was too late.’’

O’Hare veterans say there has been a long history of close calls involving the simultaneous use of 32 Left, which faces the northwest, and 9 Right, which runs east-west and crosses 32 Left.

The combination of departures and arrivals requires that controllers time the operations to provide the required minimum six miles of spacing for planes landing on 9 Right, officials said. There have been proposals to extend the spacing on final approach to 10 miles as an added safety measure when 32 Left and 9 Right are used, but the FAA has not adopted the change.